Egyptologist Douglas Murray neither liked nor trusted the disheveled American who sought him out in Cairo in 1910. The man had a furtive manner and appeared to be in the final stages of disease. But Murray a refined Briton, could not resist the blandishments of his disreputable visitor – for the American was offering him the most priceless find of his career.
It was the mummy case of a high princess in the temple of Ammon-Ra, who was supposed to have live in Thebes in 1600BC. The outside of the case bore the image of the princess, exquisitely worked in enamel and gold. The case was in excellent state of preservation.
An avid collector, Murray couldn’t resist. He drew the cheque on the Bank of England and took immediate steps to have the mummy case shipped to his London home. The cheque was never cashed. The American died that evening. Murray learned from another Egyptologist in Cairo why the price had been reasonable.
The princess from Ammon-Ra had held high office in the powerful cult of the dead, Inscribed on the walls of her death chamber she had left a legacy of misfortune and terror for anybody who despoiled her resting place.
Murray scoffed at superstition until three days later. That was when he went on shooting expedition up the Nile and the gun he was carrying exploded mysteriously in his hand. After weeks of agony in hospital, his arms had to be amputated above the elbow.
On the return voyage to England, two of Murray’s friends died from the unknown causes”. Two Egyptian servants who had handled the mummy case also died within a year.
Back in London, Murray found that the mummy case had arrived. When he looked at it, the carved face of the princess seemed to come alive with a stare that chilled the blood”.
Although he had made up his mind to get rid of it, a woman friend convinced him that he should give it to her, and she was stricken with an undiagnosed “wasting disease”. When she instructed her lawyer to make her will he insisted on returning the mummy case to Douglas Murray.
By now a broken wreck of a man, Murray wanted no part of it. He presented it to the British Museum, but even in that cold and scientific institution, the mummy case was to become notorious. A photographer who took pictures of it immediately dropped dead in his bed.
Disturbed by the newspaper stories, the board of the museum met in secret. There was a unanimous vote to ship the mummy case to a New York museum, which had agreed to accept the gift provided it was handled without publicity and sent by the safest possible means.
The case must be shipped by the prestigious new vessel making her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York that month. All arrangements were successfully completed. But the mummy case never reached New York. It was in the cargo hold of the “unsinkable” Titanic when she carried 1,498 people to their doom on April 15,1912.
